Check bank travel insurance Saga urges over 50s

05 September 2009 / by Andy Davies

Saga believes older people are getting a raw deal from high street banks offering travel insurance within packaged accounts.

Saga is urging over 50s with travel insurance through their banks to check that the policy they have includes a high enough level of cover to meet any unexpected needs whilst they are on holiday.

According to research by Saga Travel Insurance, people aged over 70 are not eligible for travel cover with Barclays, Halifax and HSBC, whilst customers aged 79 or over cannot get cover from Lloyds TSB and Alliance and Leicester.

Saga suggests many travel packages offered by banks will not offer cover for pre-existing medical conditions, unless the policyholder has contacted their bank to declare this and the bank has accepted this.

Meanwhile, Saga believes its travel insurance cover can offer over 50s a simpler alternative by conducting a medical screening process during the application either online or by telephone, to ensure customers have adequate cover at the start of their policy.

Andrew Goodsell, executive chairman at the Saga Group, believes that, "all over 50s should have access to comprehensive insurance policies."

As part of Saga's travel insurance policies, over 50s are offered comprehensive cover if a holiday needs to be cancelled or if baggage is lost or stolen, whilst policyholders are covered up to £1,500 with airline failure insurance.

Mr Goodsell said: "We urge any older people, should they have an included insurance with their bank account, to check that they are fully covered for any pre-existing medical conditions and that there is no upper age limit on that policy."
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